New N.Y. gun law's opt-out forms overwhelm clerks

Mar. 30, 2013
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Gun store owner David Petronis, of Mechanicville, N.Y., right, talks with a potential customer Jan. 26 at his table during the New York State Arms Collectors Association Albany Gun Show in Albany. / Philip Kamrass, AP

by Haley Viccaro, Gannett Albany Bureau

by Haley Viccaro, Gannett Albany Bureau

ALBANY, N.Y. - County clerks around New York say tens of thousands of pistol permit opt-out forms are flooding their offices as a state deadline nears for their completion.

But the counties have received no state money for the additional work, they say.

A provision in New York's new gun-control law allows state residents to exempt their pistol-permit records from Freedom of Information requests. But permit holders have until May 15 to file forms with their county or risk having their information available to the public.

"It started a little slow the first week with a couple of hundred a day, and now we get about 700 to 800 at the most per day," said Westchester County Clerk Tim Idoni. "People realize that the deadline is approaching."

Westchester County has received opt-out forms from more than half of its 16,800 residents who have active pistol permits, Idoni said. The provision was included in a state gun-control law in January after The (Westchester County) Journal News, a Gannett publication, released an interactive map the month before of pistol permit holders in Westchester and Rockland counties.

The state's new gun-control law also expands an assault-weapons ban, requires registration of guns every five years and limits the number of bullets in a magazine to seven.

The counties' gun-permit information will be kept private until May 15 when the opt-out forms take effect. Those who want to complete a form afterward still can, according to the law, but they won't be assured their information will be kept private in the meantime.

County clerks say the forms' popularity has office staff working overtime and clerks pulling workers from different divisions to help organize the information. Some clerks said they have started sending the forms to county judges for approval to stay ahead of the process.

"Right now we are absolutely overwhelmed, we have lines out the door and our staff are stressed to the max," Monroe County Clerk Cheryl Dinolfo said. "We are treading water and doing what needs to be done to get through the day."

Dinolfo said about 1,000 of the county's forms came from new pistol-permit applicants because the law also has spurred a surge in people buying guns. Monroe County, home to the state's third largest city in Rochester, has about 45,000 pistol-permit holders.

In most counties, county judges approve or deny the opt-out requests. Then the forms are sent back to clerk's offices where pistol permit holders' status is updated and logged as private.

The opt-out form allows a number of reasons a gun owner can seek to have information kept private. Among them: being a law-enforcement official or a victim of domestic violence, having a safety fear after grand jury service, or being concerned about harassment.

"The law is very unclear and never told those who do the work how this process should be completed," Cortland County Clerk Elizabeth Larkin said. "County by county they are trying to figure out how to comply with the law with no resources and no written regulations."

Cortland, with a population of about 50,000 people 30 miles south of Syracuse, N.Y., has 7,000 pistol-permit holders; more than 1,000 submitted an opt-out form. Additionally, Larkin said her office has had three times the number of people applying for pistol permits with lines often out the door.

State officials have said the new gun law shouldn't cost county governments anything more. State Police Superintendent Joseph D'Amico testified at a hearing in February that state would bear most of the costs.

Clerks disagree.

"We have not done any overtime, but it has been extremely difficult and my staff has gone without lunches and without breaks," Larkin said. "We may have to pull funds from contingency for supplies once it gets closer to the deadline."

Another unanticipated issue: Residents want confirmation that their information will be sealed, said County Clerk Nina Postupack of Ulster County just west of Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Almost a quarter of the 20,000 residents with pistol permits have submitted opt-out forms.

Not all county judges are giving automatic approvals. Rockland County Clerk Paul Piperato said his county judge sent back forms that lacked information or failed to provide a legitimate concern for sealing the records. Piperato plans to return the forms to residents so they can resubmit them.

GOP Sen. Thomas O'Mara of Big Flats, N.Y., said the law should be changed to keep all gun information private. He is among gun-rights supporters who want a full repeal of the law.

"The opt-out should be done away with all together," he said. "There shouldn't be any disclosure of this information."

Some good-government groups disagree and supported The Journal News' attempt in December to get pistol-permit data from Putnam County, which refused to release the information. After the gun-law passed, the news organization took down its online permit map.

"We oppose efforts to undermine the integrity of the state's Freedom of Information Law and fear the slippery slope of carving out exceptions as an attempt to undermine the public interest," the groups said in a statement Jan. 8.

County clerks said they are bracing next for registration of assault weapons, set to begin April 15 when state police make forms available online.

"It is an unfunded mandate, and it was dumped on us," Larkin said. "It should have never happened on the state level with no thought of the consequences to local county offices."